HOME | CONTRIBUTE A STORY! | ABOUT MMI | CATEGORIES OF INTEREST | CONTACT ME

image

You Know You’re Not Leading When…

Orginally published on Monday, September 22, 2008 at 8:45 AM
by Todd Rhoades

Here's part of a great post by Jon Ferguson from Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL. He writes, "Ever catch yourself not leading? Of course you have. When I find myself not leading the way I believe God has called me to lead, I ask myself, "What does it look like for me to really be a leader in this situation? Maybe this will help you know when you are slipping a little bit. You know you are not leading when...

--You wait for someone to tell you what to do rather than taking the initiative yourself

--You spend too much time talking about how things should be different

--You blame the context, surroundings, or other people for your current situation

--You choose not to speak the truth in love

--You are more concerned about being cool or accepted than doing the right thing

--You seek consensus, rather than casting vision for a preferable future

--You aren’t taking any significant risks

This is just part of Jon’s list.  You’ll want to check out the others here at his blog, Viscosity...


This post has been viewed 1998 times so far.


  There are 12 Comments:

  • Posted by

    I just read this little excerpt and I must say I agree with it wholeheartedly! I’m going over to the site now to read the rest of it! I can relate with that very profoundly and I must say a definite pinup for all leaders to keep reminding themselves!

  • Posted by

    Really good!

  • Posted by Peter Hamm

    [You seek consensus, rather than casting vision for a preferable future]

    I’ve seen this totally paralyze a lot of churches. GREAT list!

  • Posted by

    Sometimes contex, surroundings and other people make for an impossible situation

  • Posted by Kevin Connell

    I thought I read this on Jon Fergusons Blog last year???

  • Posted by

    I probably shouldn’t comment on Mondays

  • Posted by

    “You seek consensus, rather than casting vision for a preferable future”

    There’s a balance between seeking wisdom in the presence of many counselors (Proverbs 11:14, 15:22, 24:6) and not taking initiative (Proverbs 6:6-8).  If you’re waiting around for a group of disparate people to make a decision to take action, it can be just as bad as charging headlong without thought.

    I just wish we’d use a different word than, “vision,” to describe things, because then Proverbs 29:18 gets taken out of context to justify things.

    --
    CS

  • Posted by

    When you cannot stick with one plan for more than a few moments and you end up like the last book you read.

  • Posted by

    just out for a walk i suppose… ouch.

  • Posted by

    LOL Leonard!  I’ve definitely known some ministries like that.

  • Posted by Justin

    I have a suggestion to add to the list:  You find yourself working in an unhealthy church with a long history of being unhealthy; you are praying, teaching, preaching, mentoring, and visiting; you cast vision and lead in a context in which it feels as if it might be easier to herd cats; you work to develop leaders and reach out to the community, even when those who want to engage the community seem hard to come by; you take even small risks, and a family leaves when you don’t have that many families to lose…

    And you find yourself looking to a bulleted list on a blog for guidance on how to lead.

    Maybe I had too much caffeine this morning.

  • Posted by

    justin, god puts strong men in hard places, and there is no reason that your church should not change for the better, rounding up cats is a hard job, only the holy spirit can do that , so read matthew 18:19 gods word is true it will never fail if we ask in faith,we could work in our own efforts until we drop and get very little done, but the holy spirit can work so smoooothe, he can make you look good with no effort on your part but believing god for whatever you need or the people need, our long drawnout prayers just dont get it very much,i have heard people pray so lone they weary me, and nothing happened, they was just praying or maybe it was complaining just to look spiritual, so my advice on the matter is find someone that can agree with you and god will surelly do it.

  • Page 1 of 1 pages

Post Your Comments:

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Live Comment Preview:

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Please enter the word you see in the image below: